Mistakes
by The Further
Summary: Kagome gets a taste of how painful an Osuwari can really be.


And here they were again. Another one on one shouting match that seemed to last for hours during and after the battle.

At one side was a normal looking 15-year-old girl, dressed in her infamous seifuku that presented more skin than any other woman in the Feudal Era dared to show. Fists clenched as she yelled up at her competitor, a hanyou much larger than herself with a lean build hidden beneath his haori.

To any untrained eye it looked like a death sentence for the young girl and yet she seemed unafraid as the half demon bared his fangs down at her, deadly claws affixed to calloused hands that caught the sunlight as he smugly folded his arms across his chest when an insult he threw at her seemed to push her over the edge.

"You're such a stupid jerk, Inuyasha! How could you burn my school books?" She yelled, her temper over it's boiling point as an instinctive word rose to her tongue.

Inuyasha panicked, his ears attempting to disappear into his incredibly long silver hair as the girl stomped her foot and screamed a single word.

"Osuwari!" Kagome yelled, watching in satisfaction as the rosary that hung on the hanyou's neck glowed at the sound of her voice and tugged violently toward the ground, drawing Inuyasha along with it but he seemed prepared for this.

_'I'll give her a taste of her own medicine!'_ Inuyasha thought, grinning ear to ear and, in childish glee, he reached a clawed hand out and grasped the back of her head, drawing her with him to the unforgiving forest floor below their feet. 

As the weight of the merciless rosary lifted from his neck he lifted his face from the ground, dirt falling away as he jumped to his feet and pointed at the downed Kagome, laughing. "Ha! How do you like that, Ka-go-me!" He mocked only to have his glee rapidly waste away when she did not rise nor yell at him for several seconds, he wasn't even sure she was still breathing.

"K'gome?" Inuyasha asked sheepishly as he came to a crouch beside her, worry overtaking his senses as he watched the back of her head, her face buried in the rough dirt and her long black hair fanned out on either side of her, parts of it's midnight color turning a slight blue as the afternoon sun's rays that peaked through the branches of the white birchs above them caught the strands.

Another moment would pass before Kagome lifted her arms and pressed her slender pale hands into the ground to lift herself from the forest floor, taking deep breaths as soon as her nose and mouth escaped the encompassing soil though her thick hair blocked Inuyasha's view of her face though he was completely silent, and more than a little shocked, as she got on her hands and knees only to sit back on her bottom, her legs tucked close to her body and her feet pointing in various directions.

Inuyasha's ears were now firmly planted against his head as he watched her situate herself, her usually gleaming white blouse now stained from her introduction with the dirt and her bangs effectively hiding a good portion of her face though he could clearly see that her lip had a nasty split from a sharp rock that jutted from the compressed soil from where her face had landed and the start of a bruise just an inch below her left eye from where it was shadowed and he could plainly smell the copper tang of blood.

_'Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit.'_ His mind whined as he decided he couldn't look anymore and stared down at the ground, and yet a small portion of the compressed dirt was stained a deep scarlet, mocking him. He stiffened as the unnervingly silent Kagome rose a pale hand to her face only to draw it back, lifting her head as her bangs brushed away from her eyes as she looked down at it. Her fingertips were stained with crimson and her palms were smeared with the dirt she had wiped from her wounds but as she looked at it she finally started to overcome her initial shock and pain erupted from her face and she hissed in agony. Inuyasha's shoulders noticeably hunched at her exclamation but did not avert his gaze away from the ground and Kagome watched him, reflexive tear rising to her eyes as she placed her hand gently over her eye until Inuyasha sighed at the salty tang of her tears and turned to finally look her in the eye, his gaze mournful.

"Stupid..." Inuyasha mumbled, gently grasping her hand and drawing it away from her eye to assess the damage done to her usually sweet face. The bruise has begun to swell but only barely reached her eye and her lip had reddened from the split while her right nostril ran blood from it all the way to her chin and the hanyou moaned inwardly, wishing for once that the rest of the gang wasn't looking for rumors in the small village nearby. He was no healer and herbs were not his thing nor did he have a clue what to do with the remedies in Kagome's magical 'medical kit' she brought from her era but he had to try something.

Kagome watched the hanyou as emotions chased each other across his face but her tears made it hard to see his worried gaze. She forced down the lump in her throat and finally spoke, her voice cracked and hoarse but coherent. "Get a rag, a bottle of water and my med-kit, please, Inuyasha." Her voice seemed to startle him out of a stupor but he nodded and rose from his place, hurriedly rushing to her bag to get the supplies.

When he arrived back to her side, medical supplies in hand, she seemed to have stopped crying though she still periodically sniffled as she reached out for the supplies he brought back but he didn't hand them over. Instead he crouched in front of her and set them next to him, reaching out to gently wipe the streaks of salty water her tears left behind with the pad of his thumb, mindful of his sharp claws.

"Let me do it." He said, gaze determined as he stared back at her.

She watched him for a long moment, expression shocked before she smiled and nodded, tears once again rising to her eyes.

"Keh, stop cryin'." Inuyasha said roughly yet gently, grasping the cloth in one hand and the bottle in the other. He unscrewed the cap holding the top of the bottle shut and placed it on top of the medical kit, pressing the cloth to the now open mouth of the container and dumping a generous amount of liquid onto the cloth before righting it and setting it down next to the kit.

"Hold still now, got it?" Inuyasha lowered his voice to a whisper as he propped her bloody chin up with one finger his other hand grasping the soaked the soaked cloth and rising to gently press first against her purple swelling bruise before gently caressing her cheek and then swerving over to her nose to wipe off the scarlet that stained her porcelain face.

During his ministrations Kagome constantly hissed as he brushed over a tender area and he pulled back every time, startled, only to return to the same spot and caressed it with a much kinder touch this time before moving on, her swelling decreasing a great deal and the cool cloth reducing the burning sensation of her wounds.

After several minutes of rather enjoyable ministrations Inuyasha, regrettably, stopped and pulled away from her to examine her face, his gaze stern as he watched over her wounds with a critical eye until he spoke once more and looked directly at her.

"Does it still hurt?" He questioned, his molten gold eyes still sorrowful and worried.

"No, not really." She replied, smiling brightly at him despite the unfortunate circumstances.

"Keh, what are you smilin' about?" Inuyasha questioned with half hearted gruffness as he busied himself with opening her medical kit and rummaging through the odd assortments of foreign bottles until Kagome reached over and pulled the disinfectant from his hand and giggled as he grumpily looked over at her.

"Oh nothing." Kagome would smile again before open the small bottle and handing it to the hanyou.

"Here, put a dab of that on the rag and rub it onto my bruise." She instructed, nodding toward the damp cloth that hung off his hand but when he simply stared at her for another few moments she spoke again.

"It's disinfectant." She assured him and he huffed with a 'feh'.

"I knew that..." He grumbled before doing as she told him and putting a drop of the strongly scented liquid onto the cloth and busying himself with gently rubbing it onto her bruise, his sensitive nose twisting his face into one of disgust as he continued the ministrations.

The strange expression the hanyou had plastered on his face worried the young girl for a moment but then she too scrunched her face at the odor as the cloth gently caressed her cheek and they both sighed in relief when Inuyasha drew it away from her face and tossed it a few feet away into the grass. She may have to scrounge it up later but for now she was just glad that she could no longer smell the disinfectant.

Inuyasha nervously then sat beside her and shoved his hands into his sleeves, staring down them mournfully as his ear drooped dejectedly before he worked up the courage to look up at the girl at watched him questioningly. "Kagome..." He managed before he swallowed hard and managed a cracked voice. "I-I'm sorry..." He whispered, molten gold boring into her.

Kagome raised her brows. "For what?" She questioned, her eyes beginning to return a sorrowful look as his gaze reminded her of a kicked puppy begging for forgiveness.

"For...you know...hurting you..." Inuyasha said. "And...burning your books..." He added as he glanced over at the ashes of the girl's destroyed school books that smoldered in the meager fire not 10 feet away.

Kagome sighed but then smiled up at the hanyou. "No, Inuyasha. I'm sorry for saying 'the word', besides I can just ask Mama for money for more school books." That seemed to considerably brighten the hanyou but also saddened him. He didn't want her to go back to that school of hers. He, admittedly, missed her a great deal when she left for her world.

He turned his gaze back to the fire and sighed only to feel a slight weight rest against his shoulder and found Kagome resting her head against him.

He watched her for what seemed like half an hour before chancing another 'Osuwari' from the girl and carefully wrapping his arm around her shoulders, gently placing a clawed hand on her upper arm.

To his great surprise, and awe, Kagome snuggled closer to his chest. Their unfortunate argument seemingly forgotten as she smiled and her right hand grasped his haori, her bruised cheek pressed against his bicep. Inuyasha returned her bright smile only to realize she now had her eyes closed and was falling into a very comfortable sleep. The hanyou took this as a invitation and rested his cheek against her head, her soft dark hair cradling his face as his arm pulled her closer, praying to whatever god was listening that the rest of the team would stay at the village for a long while.


End file.
